Guardian: Vice-chancellors share their expectations for 2015 party manifestos

Our report on research excellence was highlighted in a quote from John Vinney, vice chancellor of Bournemouth University – which is one of our members. Prof Vinney was sharing what he wants political parties to include in their 2015 election manifestos in the Guardian Higher Education Network Blog.

“I’d like the government to fund excellence in research wherever it is found, rather than concentrating on a limited number of universities. There is a pervasive myth that the best research happens in traditional research-intensive universities and that critical mass is essential to effective research, and this myth seems to be influencing a lot of government policy. But a 2011 report by University Alliance demonstrated conclusively that quality is a driver of scale and not vice-versa; an analysis of RAE 2008 clearly showed that small and medium-sized departments performed as well as, and often better than, the largest departments.”

In the same feature, Professor Bob Cryan, vice-chancellor, University of Huddersfield, (another of our members) also called for ‘all political parties [to] recognise that higher education is an investment for the benefit of UK PLC’.